Celebrating 40 Years of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences
During our special Fall symposium on November 28, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences. Organized in collaboration with our study association L.P.S.V. „Aesculapius”, the event brought together staff, students, and alumni for an afternoon focused on four decades of ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’.
From Empty Fields to a Life Sciences Hub
Esther Peters, director of the Leiden Bio Science Park, reflected on the park's remarkable transformation from a stretch of empty fields into a dynamic epicenter for life sciences innovation. She emphasized the park's commitment to community-building, inviting attendees to participate in initiatives such as the Life Sciences Café, held every third Thursday of the month, and the TechTalks series. These events foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing across academia, startups, and established companies.
The Start of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences
Emeritus professor Douwe Breimer reflected on the pivotal moments that led to the founding of the Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences programme. He shared how major government budget cuts in 1983 forced the closure of the Pharmacy programmes in Leiden and Amsterdam. Seizing the opportunity, Breimer successfully negotiated the establishment of an innovative Center for Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences in Leiden, focused on multidisciplinary drug research and education. From the start, collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry has been a focus point, as also evidenced by the inaugural symposium of 1985, themed “Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences: Towards a University/Industry Partnership”.
A Decade of Educational Innovation
Marjo de Graauw delivered an inspiring presentation on educational advancements within the BPS programme over the past ten years. Highlights included:
-Enhancing Research-Based Education: the implementation of the REAL research cycle and a shift from "cookbook" experiments to research-oriented practicals, aided by tools like LabBuddy and interactive videolabs.
-Developing Transferable Skills and Career Preparation: the introduction of a skills learning trajectory and the Science Skills Platform to equip students with critical competencies for their future career.
-Improving Computational Thinking: the recent development of a computational learning trajectory to ensure students are well trained in statistics, mathematics, data management, and programming knowledge and skills.
De Graauw emphasized that these innovations were implemented using an evidence-based approach, in collaboration with students and LACDR's dedicated teaching staff.
Panel Discussion: Studying Then and Now
The first part of the afternoon was concluded with a lively panel discussion, hosted by L.P.S.V. „Aesculapius”, with alumni Gert van den Berg (1984), Gerard van Westen (2003), and Marije Otto (2017), who shared their experiences and reflected on how studying, the faculty, the study association, and student live have evolved over the past 40 years.
From Lab to Launch
After the break, the second part of the symposium focused on the experiences of former and current scientists at LACDR in translating their innovations towards benefit of society and starting their own companies.
Emeritus professor Theo van Berkel reflected on his pioneering work in drug targeting, highlighting how the discovery of GalNAc-Targeting, discovered 40 years ago, forced a major breakthrough in nucleotide medicines, long after the patent had expired. In December 2020, the drug Inclirisan (Leqvio, Novartis), which is based on this unique technology, was approved by the European Medicines Agency EMA as a novel cholesterol-lowering therapy. The GalNAc-technology is now also being used to reduce the expression of several other genes in the liver in various clinical trials.
The presentation by Van Berkel was followed by several short pitches.
Stéfan Ellenbroek, director of unlock_, the life science&health incubator programme in Leiden and Biotech Booster cluster manager, discussed the future of academic drug development, emphasizing the importance of researchers considering early how to align their innovations with clinical and market demands.
Paul Vulto, founder and CEO of Mimetas, a spin-off company of LACDR shared his career path and provided insight in the birth of the OrganoPlate, driving the development of human tissue models for 21st century therapeutics.
Tessa de Korte, Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences graduate and director of Biology at Sync Biosystems, showed her path from doing an internship at a start-up company and back to academia for a PhD project on the development of 3D cardiac microtissues for drug screening. She then took the step to found her own company, centered around a microfluidic device for automated, gentle pipetting.
Finally Willem Jespers, founder and CSO of MODSIM Pharma and assistant professor at LACDR, shared his experience and lessons learned with his company specialized in computational structure-based drug design. Amongst others he stressed that it is important to get legal advice, think of an exit at the beginning, talk to people, and importantly have fun!
After these pitches Miranda van Eck led a lively panel discussion with questions from the audience.
Celebrating Excellence: Awards for Outstanding Achievements in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences
The last part of the symposium was focused on celebrating excellence with awards for the best master and PhD theses. Daan Jiskoot won the Suzanne Hovinga award for his Research Project 2 thesis, entitled ‘Generating physical intermediates for chemically distinct ligand pairs to improve challenging relative binding free energy calculations’.
Marie Depuydt has won the Van Wersch Springboard Prize for her thesis, entitled ‘Single-cell immune profiling of atherosclerosis: from omics to therapeutics’.
The afternoon full of inspiration was concluded with complementary drinks in the beautifully renovated restaurant of the Gorlaeus Lecture Hall building.